Wind

I live in the heartland of the United States, in eastern Nebraska. I suspect that people living in other parts of the country say the same thing to each other, but we often find the weather here to be somewhat unpredictable. Certainly, the broad sweeps of the seasons do cause some certain changes; the middle of the summer is usually hot and dry; the middle of the winter is usually cold, and possibly snowy. Fall and spring are somewhere between those extremes. But to expect a particular type of weather on a particular day? Unlikely to happen. I’ve seen a warm 70 degree day in January, and a chilly 40 degree day in June.

The local weather forecasters do their best to tell us what is going to happen tomorrow, or next week or next month. But all they have to go by are what the current conditions are, and where things seem to be moving. We recently had a “winter weather watch”, that anticipated the “first winter storm of the season”. Two to four inches of snow was expected, with blowing and drifing possible. Within twelve hours of the expected event, it appeared that the winds had shifted things more to the north, so it totally missed my part of the country. We got the cold temperatures, but not the snow.

What this tells me is that even when an experienced meteorologist attempts to make a prediction based on current conditions, he might be right; but a million variables can combine to make a forecast totally wrong.

In Matthew 16:2-3, Jesus criticizes the spiritual leadership of his day, the Parisees and Sadducees, for being intelligent enough to make predictions about the weather, but blind enough to be unable to see clearly the times in which they lived. And even today, with our twenty-four hour news networks, instant reports from around the world, and even instant messaging between each other, we still find ourselves getting lost in the details, and unable to see the broad sweeps of the times in which we live.

The thing with the future is that it is totally unpredictable. I live every day with the expectation that I will be around tomorrow, but I have no guarantee of that. The only certainty that I have about tomorrow is that Jesus will be there to take care of me and my life, regardless of the events of the day. A sunny day with warm temperatures? A cold windy day with snow? The best day of my life? The worst day of my life? He has it all covered, and He will be there to help me through it. The old quote is true: “I don’t know what tomorrow holds, but I know Who holds tomorrow.”

The 2nd Chapter Of Acts sang about this on their 1974 debut album, With Footnotes, in their opening song, Which Way The Wind Blows.

Feel a feeling
Say a saying
But you’ll still
Be lonely
If you think life is only
For this moment

Do a doing
Mourn a mourning
Still won’t get you off your sorrow
So go ahead and cry, but you
Can’t pry a look at tommorrow

You don’t know which way the wind blows
So how can you plan tommorow?
You don’t know which way the wind blows
So how can you plan tommorow?

Run a running
Hide a hiding
Whenever you hear the truth
And when you ask for the proof,
You won’t listen
Listen

Praise a praising
Build a building
Trying to get peace into your life
And you don’t even know wrong from right
Oh, where’s your wisdom?

You don’t know which way the wind blows
So how can you plan tommorow?
You don’t know which way the wind blows
So how can you plan tommorow?

Die a dying
Ressurecting
By believing and receiving
Forgiveness from Jesus
Who took the sin from sinning

You don’t know which way the wind blows
So how can you plan tommorow?
Jesus knows which way the wind blows
So how give Him your tommorow!

Believe and recieve
Believe and recieve

You don’t know which way the wind blows
So how can you plan tommorow?
You don’t know which way the wind blows
So how can you plan tommorow?